Unraveling the significance of cobalt on transformation kinetics,crystallography and impact toughness in high-strength steels

This work reveals the significant effects of cobalt(Co)on the microstructure and impact toughness of as-quenched highstrength steels by experimental characterizations and thermo-kinetic analyses.The results show that the Co-bearing steel exhibits finer blocks and a lower ductile-brittle transition temperature than the steel without Co.Moreover,the Co-bearing steel reveals higher transformation rates at the intermediate stage with bainite volume fraction ranging from around 0.1 to 0.6.The improved impact toughness of the Co-bearing steel results from the higher dense block boundaries dominated by the V1/V2 variant pair.Furthermore,the addition of Co induces a larger transformation driving force and a lower bainite start temperature(BS),thereby contributing to the refinement of blocks and the increase of the V1/V2 variant pair.These findings would be instructive for the composition,microstructure design,and property optimization of high-strength steels.

Quickly obtaining densely dispersed coherent particles in steel matrix and its related mechanical property

Densely distributed coherent nanoparticles(DCN)in steel matrix can enhance the work-hardening ability and ductility of steel simultaneously.All the routes to this end can be generally classified into the liquid-solid route and the solid-solid route.However,the formation of DCN structures in steel requires long processes and complex steps.So far,obtaining steel with coherent particle enhancement in a short time remains a bottleneck,and some necessary steps remain unavoidable.Here,we show a high-efficiency liquid-phase refining process reinforced by a dynamic magnetic field.Ti-Y-Mn-O particles had an average size of around(3.53±1.21)nm and can be obtained in just around 180 s.These small nanoparticles were coherent with the matrix,implying no accumulated dislocations between the particles and the steel matrix.Our findings have a potential application for improving material machining capacity,creep resistance,and radiation resistance.

Review of precipitation strengthening in ultrahigh-strength martensitic steel

Martensite is an important microstructure in ultrahigh-strength steels,and enhancing the strength of martensitic steels often involves the introduction of precipitated phases within the martensitic matrix.Despite considerable research efforts devoted to this area,a systematic summary of these advancements is lacking.This review focuses on the precipitates prevalent in ultrahigh-strength martensitic steel,primarily carbides(e.g.,MC,M_(2)C,and M_(3)C)and intermetallic compounds(e.g.,Ni Al,Ni_(3)X,and Fe_(2)Mo).The precipitation-strengthening effect of these precipitates on ultrahigh-strength martensitic steel is discussed from the aspects of heat treatment processes,microstructure of precipitate-strengthened martensite matrix,and mechanical performance.Finally,a perspective on the development of precipitation-strengthened martensitic steel is presented to contribute to the advancement of ultrahigh-strength martensitic steel.This review highlights significant findings,ongoing challenges,and opportunities in the development of ultrahigh-strength martensitic steel.

Effects of carbon content on the microstructure and tensile properties of a low-density steel

Carbon can change the phase components of low-density steels and influence the mechanical properties.In this study,a new method to control the carbon content and avoid the formation ofδ-ferrite by decarburization treatment was proposed.The microstructural changes and mechanical characteristics with carbon content induced by decarburization were systematically examined.Crussard-Jaoul(C-J)analysis was employed to examine the work hardening characteristics during the tensile test.During decarburization by heat treatments,the carbon content within the austenite phase decreased,while Mn and Al were almost unchanged;this made the steel with full austenite transform into the austenite and ferrite dual phase.Meanwhile,(Ti,V)C carbides existed in both matrix phase and the mole fraction almost the same.In addition,the formation of other carbides restrained.Carbon loss induced a decrease in strength due to the weakening of the carbon solid solution.For the steel with the single austinite,the deformation mode of austenite was the dislocation planar glide,resulting in the formation of microbands.For the dual-phase steel,the deformation occurred by the dislocation planar glide of austenite first,with the increase in strain,the cross slip of ferrite took place,forming dislocation cells in ferrite.At the late stage of deformation,the work hardening of austinite increased rapidly,while that of ferrite increased slightly.

Effect of Nb-V microalloying on the hot deformation behavior of medium Mn steels

The influence of Nb-V microalloying on the hot deformation behavior and microstructures of medium Mn steel(MMS)was investigated by uniaxial hot compression tests.By establishing the constitutive equations for simulating the measured flow curves,we successfully constructed deformation activation energy(Q)maps and processing maps for identifying the region of flow instability.We concluded the following consequences of Nb-V alloying for MMS.(i)The critical strain increases and the increment diminishes with the increasing deformation temperature,suggesting that NbC precipitates more efficiently retard dynamic recrystallization(DRX)in MMS compared with solute Nb.(ii)The deformation activation energy of MMS is significantly increased and even higher than that of some reported high Mn steels,suggesting that its ability to retard DRX is greater than that of the high Mn content.(iii)The hot workability of MMS is improved by narrowing the hot processing window for the unstable flow stress,in which fine recrystallized and coarse unrecrystallized grains are present.

Microstructure and Wear/corrosion Resistance of Stainless Steel Laser-alloyed with Mn+W_(2)C, Mn+NiWC and Mn+SiC

In-situ formed high Mn steel coating reinforced by carbides was formed by laser surface alloying(LSA).Laser alloyed layers on 1Cr18Ni9Ti steel with Mn+W_(2)C(specimen A),Mn+NiWC(specimen B)and Mn+SiC(specimen C)powders were fabricated to improve the wear and corrosion behavior of 1Cr18Ni9Ti steel blades in high speed mixers.Microstructure evolution,phases,element distribution,microhardness,wear and corrosion behavior of the laser alloyed layers were investigated.Results indicated that high Mn steel matrix composites with undissolved W_(2)C,WC and other in-situ formed carbides were formed by LSA with Mn+W_(2)C and Mn+NiWC while SiC totally dissolved into the high Mn matrix when adding Mn+SiC.Ni as the binding phase in Ni-WC powder decreased the crack sensitivity of the alloyed layer as compared with the addition of W_(2)C powder.An improvement in average microhardness was achieved in the matrix in specimen A,B and C,with the value of 615,602 and 277 HV_(0.5),while that of the substrate was 212 HV_(0.5).The increase of microhardness,wear and corrosion resistance is highly corelated to microstructure,formed phases,type and content of carbides,micro-hardness and toughness of the alloyed layers.

The Mechanism of Heating Rate on the Secondary Recrystallization Evolution in Grain Oriented Silicon Steel

Grain-oriented silicon steels were prepared at different heating rates during high temperature annealing,in which the evolution of magnetic properties,grain orientations and precipitates were studied.To illustrate the Zener factor,the diameter and number density of precipitates of interrupted testing samples were statistically calculated.The effect of precipitate ripening on the Goss texture and magnetic property was investigated.Data indicated that the trend of Zener factor was similar under different heating rates,first increasing and then decreasing,and that the precipitate maturing was greatly inhibited as the heating rate increased.Secondary recrystallization was developed at the temperature of 1010℃when a heating rate of 5℃/h was used,resulting in Goss,Brass and{110}<227>oriented grains growing abnormally and a magnetic induction intensity of 1.90T.Furthermore,increasing the heating rate to 20℃/h would inhibit the development of undesirable oriented grains and obtain a sharp Goss texture.However,when the heating rate was extremely fast,such as 40℃/h,poor secondary recrystallization was developed with many island grains,corresponding to a decrease in magnetic induction intensity to 1.87 T.At a suitable heating rate of 20℃/h,the sharpest Goss texture and the highest magnetic induction of 1.94 T with an onset secondary recrystallization temperature of 1020℃were found among the experimental variables in this study.The heating rate affected the initial temperature of secondary recrystallization by controlling the maturation of precipitates,leading to the deviation and dispersion of Goss texture,thereby reducing the magnetic properties.

Microstructural evolution during the progressive transformation-induced plasticity effect in a Fe-0.1C-5Mnmedium manganese steel

The microstructural evolution of a cold-rolled and intercritical annealed medium-Mn steel(Fe-0.10C-5Mn)was investigated during uniaxial tensile testing.In-situ observations under scanning electron microscopy,transmission electron microscopy,and X-ray diffraction analysis were conducted to characterize the progressive transformation-induced plasticity process and associated fracture initiation mechanisms.These findings were discussed with the local strain measurements via digital image correlation.The results indicated that Lüders band formation in the steel was limited to 1.5%strain,which was mainly due to the early-stage martensitic phase transformation of a very small amount of the less stable large-sized retained austenite(RA),which led to localized stress concentrations and strain hardening and further retardation of yielding.The small-sized RA exhibited high stability and progressively transformed into martensite and contributed to a stably extended Portevin-Le Chatelier effect.The volume fraction of RA gradually decreased from 26.8%to 8.2%prior to fracture.In the late deformation stage,fracture initiation primarily occurred at the austenite/martensite and ferrite/martensite interfaces and the ferrite phase.

Effect of lamellarization on the microstructure and mechanical properties of marine 10Ni5CrMoV steel

Multistage heat treatment involving quenching(Q),lamellarizing(L),and tempering(T)is applied to marine 10Ni5CrMoV steel.The microstructure and mechanical properties were studied by multiscale characterizations,and the kinetics of reverse austenite transformation,strain hardening behavior,and toughening mechanism were further investigated.The lamellarized specimens possess low yield strength but high toughness,especially cryogenic toughness.Lamellarization leads to the development of film-like reversed austenite at the martensite block and lath boundaries,refining the martensite structure and lowering the equivalent grain size.Kinetic analysis of austenite reversion based on the JMAK model shows that the isothermal transformation is dominated by the growth of reversed austenite,and the maximum transformation of reversed austenite is reached at the peak temperature(750℃).The strain hardening behavior based on the modified Crussard-Jaoul analysis indicates that the reversed austenite obtained from lamellarization reduces the proportion of martensite,significantly hindering crack propagation via martensitic transformation during the deformation.As a consequence,the QLT specimens exhibit high machinability and low yield strength.Compared with the QT specimen,the ductile-brittle transition temperature of the QLT specimens decreases from-116 to-130℃due to the low equivalent grain size and reversed austenite,which increases the cleavage force required for crack propagation and absorbs the energy of external load,respectively.This work provides an idea to improve the cryogenic toughness of marine 10Ni5CrMoV steel and lays a theoretical foundation for its industrial application and comprehensive performance improvement.

Novel Methodologies for Preventing Crack Propagation in Steel Gas Pipelines Considering the Temperature Effect

Using the software ANSYS-19.2/Explicit Dynamics,this study performedfinite-element modeling of the large-diameter steel pipeline cross-section for the Beineu-Bozoy-Shymkent gas pipeline with a non-through straight crack,strengthened by steel wire wrapping.The effects of the thread tensile force of the steel winding in the form of single rings at the crack edges and the wires with different winding diameters and pitches were also studied.The results showed that the strengthening was preferably executed at a minimum value of the thread tensile force,which was 6.4%more effective than that at its maximum value.The analysis of the influence of the winding dia-meters showed that the equivalent stresses increased by 32%from the beginning of the crack growth until the wire broke.The increment in winding diameter decelerated the disclosure of the edge crack and reduced its length by 8.2%.The analysis of the influence of the winding pitch showed that decreasing the distance between the winding turns also led to a 33.6%reduction in the length of the straight crack and a 7.9%reduction in the maximum stres-ses on the strengthened pipeline cross-section.The analysis of the temperature effect on the pipeline material,within a range from-40℃ to+50℃,resulted in a crack length change of up to 5.8%.As the temperature dropped,the crack length decreased.Within such a temperature range,the maximum stresses were observed along the cen-tral area of the crack,which were equal to 413 MPa at+50℃ and 440 MPa at-40℃.The results also showed that the presence of the steel winding in the pipeline significantly reduced the length of crack propagation up to 8.4 times,depending on the temperature effect and design parameters of prestressing.This work integrated the existing methods for crack localization along steel gas pipelines.

Effect of Rare Earth Element on Formation and Propagation of Thermal Fatigue Crack in Low-Chromium Semi-Steel

The formation and growth of thermal fatigue crack in low-chromium semi-steel were investigated by means of optical microscope and scanning electron microscope, and the function of RE in low-chromium semi-steel was analyzed. The results show that the thermal fatigue cracks are mainly generated at eutectic carbides, and the cracks not only grow and spread but also join each other. RE can improve the eutectic carbide′s morphology, inhibit the generation and propagation of thermal fatigue cracks, and therefore promote the activation energy for the crack′s propagation, which is especially more noticeable in case of the RE modification in combination with heat treatment. The mathematical model of the crack propagation is put forward.

Development and prospects of molten steel deoxidation in steelmaking process

In the long traditional process of steelmaking,excess oxygen is blown into the converter,and alloying elements are used for deoxidation.This inevitably results in excessive deoxidation of products remaining within the steel liquid,affecting the cleanliness of the steel.With the increasing requirements for steel performance,reducing the oxygen content in the steel liquid and ensuring its high cleanliness is necessary.After more than a hundred years of development,the total oxygen content in steel has been reduced from approximately 100×10^(-6)to approximately 10×10^(-6),and it can be controlled below 5×10^(-6)in some steel grades.A relatively stable and mature deoxidation technology has been formed,but further reducing the oxygen content in steel is no longer significant for improving steel quality.Our research team developed a deoxidation technology for bearing steel by optimizing the entire conventional process.The technology combines silicon–manganese predeoxidation,ladle furnace diffusion deoxidation,and vacuum final deoxidation.We successfully conducted industrial experiments and produced interstitial-free steel with natural decarbonization predeoxidation.Non-aluminum deoxidation was found to control the oxygen content in bearing steel to between 4×10^(-6) and 8×10^(-6),altering the type of inclusions,eliminating large particle Ds-type inclusions,improving the flowability of the steel liquid,and deriving a higher fatigue life.The natural decarbonization predeoxidation of interstitial-free steel reduced aluminum consumption and production costs and significantly improved the quality of cast billets.

Review on the plastic instability of medium -Mn steels for identifying the formation mechanisms of Lüders and Portevin -Le Chatelier bands

Plastic instability,including both the discontinuous yielding and stress serrations,has been frequently observed during the tensile deformation of medium-Mn steels(MMnS)and has been intensively studied in recent years.Unfortunately,research results are controversial,and no consensus has been achieved regarding the topic.Here,we first summarize all the possible factors that affect the yielding and flow stress serrations in MMnS,including the morphology and stability of austenite,the feature of the phase interface,and the deformation parameters.Then,we propose a universal mechanism to explain the conflicting experimental results.We conclude that the discontinuous yielding can be attributed to the lack of mobile dislocation before deformation and the rapid dislocation multiplication at the beginning of plastic deformation.Meanwhile,the results show that the stress serrations are formed due to the pinning and depinning between dislocations and interstitial atoms in austenite.Strain-induced martensitic transformation,influenced by the mechanical stability of austenite grain and deformation parameters,should not be the intrinsic cause of plastic instability.However,it can intensify or weaken the discontinuous yielding and the stress serrations by affecting the mobility and density of dislocations,as well as the interaction between the interstitial atoms and dislocations in austenite grains.

Prediction model for corrosion rate of low-alloy steels under atmospheric conditions using machine learning algorithms

This work constructed a machine learning(ML)model to predict the atmospheric corrosion rate of low-alloy steels(LAS).The material properties of LAS,environmental factors,and exposure time were used as the input,while the corrosion rate as the output.6 dif-ferent ML algorithms were used to construct the proposed model.Through optimization and filtering,the eXtreme gradient boosting(XG-Boost)model exhibited good corrosion rate prediction accuracy.The features of material properties were then transformed into atomic and physical features using the proposed property transformation approach,and the dominant descriptors that affected the corrosion rate were filtered using the recursive feature elimination(RFE)as well as XGBoost methods.The established ML models exhibited better predic-tion performance and generalization ability via property transformation descriptors.In addition,the SHapley additive exPlanations(SHAP)method was applied to analyze the relationship between the descriptors and corrosion rate.The results showed that the property transformation model could effectively help with analyzing the corrosion behavior,thereby significantly improving the generalization ability of corrosion rate prediction models.

Effects of iron oxide on crystallization behavior and spatial distribution of spinel in stainless steel slag

Chromium plays a vital role in stainless steel due to its ability to improve the corrosion resistance of the latter.However,the re-lease of chromium from stainless steel slag(SSS)during SSS stockpiling causes detrimental environmental issues.To prevent chromium pollution,the effects of iron oxide on crystallization behavior and spatial distribution of spinel were investigated in this work.The results revealed that FeO was more conducive to the growth of spinels compared with Fe2O3 and Fe3O4.Spinels were found to be mainly distrib-uted at the top and bottom of slag.The amount of spinel phase at the bottom decreased with the increasing FeO content,while that at the top increased.The average particle size of spinel in the slag with 18wt%FeO content was 12.8μm.Meanwhile,no notable structural changes were observed with a further increase in FeO content.In other words,the spatial distribution of spinel changed when the content of iron oxide varied in the range of 8wt%to 18wt%.Finally,less spinel was found at the bottom of slag with a FeO content of 23wt%.

An Integrated Analysis on the Synergistic Reduction of Carbon and Pollution Emissions from China’s Iron and Steel Industry

Decarbonization and decontamination of the iron and steel industry(ISI),which contributes up to 15%to anthropogenic CO_(2) emissions(or carbon emissions)and significant proportions of air and water pollutant emissions in China,are challenged by the huge demand for steel.Carbon and pollutants often share common emission sources,indicating that emission reduction could be achieved synergistically.Here,we explored the inherent potential of measures to adjust feedstock composition and technological structure and to control the size of the ISI to achieve carbon emission reduction(CER)and pollution emission reduction(PER).We investigated five typical pollutants in this study,namely,petroleum hydrocarbon pollutants and chemical oxygen demand in wastewater,particulate matter,SO_(2),and NO_(x) in off gases,and examined synergies between CER and PER by employing cross elasticity for the period between 2022 and 2035.The results suggest that a reduction of 8.7%-11.7%in carbon emissions and 20%-31%in pollution emissions(except for particulate matter emissions)could be achieved by 2025 under a high steel scrap ratio(SSR)scenario.Here,the SSR and electric arc furnace(EAF)ratio serve critical roles in enhancing synergies between CER and PER(which vary with the type of pollutant).However,subject to a limited volume of steel scrap,a focused increase in the EAF ratio with neglection of the available supply of steel scrap to EAF facilities would lead to an increase carbon and pollution emissions.Although CER can be achieved through SSR and EAF ratio optimization,only when the crude steel production growth rate remains below 2.2%can these optimization measures maintain the emissions in 2030 at a similar level to that in 2021.Therefore,the synergistic effects between PER and CER should be considered when formulating a development route for the ISI in the future.

Stress-assisted corrosion mechanism of 3Ni steel by using gradient boosting decision tree machining learning method

Traditional 3Ni weathering steel cannot completely meet the requirements for offshore engineering development,resulting in the design of novel 3Ni steel with the addition of microalloy elements such as Mn or Nb for strength enhancement becoming a trend.The stress-assisted corrosion behavior of a novel designed high-strength 3Ni steel was investigated in the current study using the corrosion big data method.The information on the corrosion process was recorded using the galvanic corrosion current monitoring method.The gradi-ent boosting decision tree(GBDT)machine learning method was used to mine the corrosion mechanism,and the importance of the struc-ture factor was investigated.Field exposure tests were conducted to verify the calculated results using the GBDT method.Results indic-ated that the GBDT method can be effectively used to study the influence of structural factors on the corrosion process of 3Ni steel.Dif-ferent mechanisms for the addition of Mn and Cu to the stress-assisted corrosion of 3Ni steel suggested that Mn and Cu have no obvious effect on the corrosion rate of non-stressed 3Ni steel during the early stage of corrosion.When the corrosion reached a stable state,the in-crease in Mn element content increased the corrosion rate of 3Ni steel,while Cu reduced this rate.In the presence of stress,the increase in Mn element content and Cu addition can inhibit the corrosion process.The corrosion law of outdoor-exposed 3Ni steel is consistent with the law based on corrosion big data technology,verifying the reliability of the big data evaluation method and data prediction model selection.

Recent progress in visualization and digitization of coherent transformation structures and application in high-strength steel

High-strength steels are mainly composed of medium-or low-temperature microstructures,such as bainite or martensite,with coherent transformation characteristics.This type of microstructure has a high density of dislocations and fine crystallographic structural units,which ease the coordinated matching of high strength,toughness,and plasticity.Meanwhile,given its excellent welding perform-ance,high-strength steel has been widely used in major engineering constructions,such as pipelines,ships,and bridges.However,visual-ization and digitization of the effective units of these coherent transformation structures using traditional methods(optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy)is difficult due to their complex morphology.Moreover,the establishment of quantitative relationships with macroscopic mechanical properties and key process parameters presents additional difficulty.This article reviews the latest progress in microstructural visualization and digitization of high-strength steel,with a focus on the application of crystallographic methods in the development of high-strength steel plates and welding.We obtained the crystallographic data(Euler angle)of the transformed microstruc-tures through electron back-scattering diffraction and combined them with the calculation of inverse transformation from bainite or martensite to austenite to determine the reconstruction of high-temperature parent austenite and orientation relationship(OR)during con-tinuous cooling transformation.Furthermore,visualization of crystallographic packets,blocks,and variants based on actual OR and digit-ization of various grain boundaries can be effectively completed to establish quantitative relationships with alloy composition and key process parameters,thereby providing reverse design guidance for the development of high-strength steel.

Flow characteristics and hot workability of a typical low-alloy high-strength steel during multi-pass deformation

Heavy components of low-alloy high-strength(LAHS) steels are generally formed by multi-pass forging. It is necessary to explore the flow characteristics and hot workability of LAHS steels during the multi-pass forging process, which is beneficial to the formulation of actual processing parameters. In the study, the multi-pass hot compression experiments of a typical LAHS steel are carried out at a wide range of deformation temperatures and strain rates. It is found that the work hardening rate of the experimental material depends on deformation parameters and deformation passes, which is ascribed to the impacts of static and dynamic softening behaviors. A new model is established to describe the flow characteristics at various deformation passes. Compared to the classical Arrhenius model and modified Zerilli and Armstrong model, the newly proposed model shows higher prediction accuracy with a confidence level of 0.98565. Furthermore, the connection between power dissipation efficiency(PDE) and deformation parameters is revealed by analyzing the microstructures. The PDE cannot be utilized to reflect the efficiency of energy dissipation for microstructure evolution during the entire deformation process, but only to assess the efficiency of energy dissipation for microstructure evolution in a specific deformation parameter state.As a result, an integrated processing map is proposed to better study the hot workability of the LAHS steel, which considers the effects of instability factor(IF), PDE, and distribution and size of grains. The optimized processing parameters for the multi-pass deformation process are the deformation parameters of 1223–1318 K and 0.01–0.08 s^(-1). Complete dynamic recrystallization occurs within the optimized processing parameters with an average grain size of 18.36–42.3 μm. This study will guide the optimization of the forging process of heavy components.

Effect of temperature and time on the precipitation ofκ-carbides in Fe-28Mn-10Al-0.8C low-density steels:Aging mechanism and its impact on material properties

In low-density steel,κ-carbides primarily precipitate in the form of nanoscale particles within austenite grains.However,their precipitation within ferrite matrix grains has not been comprehensively explored,and the second-phase evolution mechanism during aging remains unclear.In this study,the crystallographic characteristics and morphological evolution ofκ-carbides in Fe-28Mn-10Al-0.8C(wt%)low-density steel at different aging temperatures and times and the impacts of these changes on the steels’microhardness and properties were comprehensively analyzed.Under different heat treatment conditions,intragranularκ-carbides exhibited various morpho-logical and crystallographic characteristics,such as acicular,spherical,and short rod-like shapes.At the initial stage of aging,acicularκ-carbides primarily precipitated,accompanied by a few spherical carbides.κ-Carbides grew and coarsened with aging time,the spherical carbides were considerably reduced,and rod-like carbides coarsened.Vickers hardness testing demonstrated that the material’s hardness was affected by the volume fraction,morphology,and size ofκ-carbides.Extended aging at higher temperatures led to an increase in carbide size and volume fraction,resulting in a gradual rise in hardness.During deformation,the primary mechanisms for strengthening were dislocation strengthening and second-phase strengthening.Based on these findings,potential strategies for improving material strength are proposed.